When Taylor’s dad Rick invited us back for the company Christmas party, we weren’t sure we’d want to go. After all, we hadn’t even left yet. The idea of planning a trip home only two months after starting out on our big adventure felt a little like cheating. We’d been prepared to leave our old lives behind for years, if not forever. We weren’t sure if we’d even want to leave the beaches of Mexico for the ice and snow of Oregon.

Who am I kidding, I love ice and snow. It also seemed like a good way to check back in with our family and friends. We hoped coming back safe and sound, practically as normal as when we left, would be a good way to help calm the nerves of anyone worried about us. After talking it over, we agreed to fly home for the party, and we’re really glad we did.

After doing the “Baja” thing (which is mostly camp on beaches for free and eat incredibly cheap fish tacos) for almost a month we locked our truck in storage and flew home to Oregon. The evening before our flight, we snorkeled for about an hour and watched the sun go down in our flip-flops. After landing in Portland, we drove out of the airport in freezing rain.

We had a busy few weeks, jumping from place to place, seeing as many loved ones as possible. We gorged ourselves on comfort food and craft beer, snuggled any animal that would hold still, and reveled in the snow and cold. I don’t think we had realized how much we missed these parts of our old life until we had the chance to experience them again.

Another thing going home helped us to appreciate, is how truly amazing our friends and family really are. Everyone is positive and supportive of our trip and the choices we made to make it happen. Most everybody understands our drive to travel this way, and those who don’t understand our motivations love and respect us anyway.

We also hadn’t realized how many people were invested in what we’re doing. It seems a lot more people than we thought read this blog. Everyone had tips and suggestions to help us out as we head further South. My mom helped us learn our way around a Dutch oven, and Taylor’s mom requested more pictures and stories of the people we meet. Our third mom Eva suggested we write for ourselves, about our experiences and things we’ve learned, to keep us thinking and growing.

I’m also sure almost everyone we stayed with received at least a package or two (or three or four..) we’d ordered from Amazon.

After three weeks of eating, horseback riding, turkey hunting, playing in the snow, eating, airsoft wars, building Legos, watching movies, hugs, and more eating we’re back on the same beach we left from. Thank you to everyone. We love you and you’re awesome. Also thanks to Rick, for talking us into coming home so soon.

Also, for anyone still worried about us, we picked up a Spot tracker before leaving. That means you can creepily see pretty much our every move. We’ve added a link to our home page where the rarely updated google map used to live. You can also go directly to our live map HERE.